


Where There's Kenobi, Skywalker's Not Far Behind

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Everybody Lives, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Fix-It, Jedi Master Dooku, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22383880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: In a world where Dooku and Qui-Gon share a bond of brotherhood that kept them together rather than split them apart, they train their Padawans - best friends since they met - alongside one another.Years later, when the Clone Wars have kicked off and both Obi-Wan and Anakin are Knights and Generals, Qui-Gon's new Padawan Ahsoka Tano is about to learn why her sibling-students have such a reputation.
Relationships: Dooku & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Ahsoka Tano, Qui-Gon Jinn & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 50
Kudos: 695





	Where There's Kenobi, Skywalker's Not Far Behind

The names Kenobi and Skywalker had been synonymous with trouble since the two were younglings, and time had not dulled it. If anything, since they discovered Kamino and the Clone Wars had begun, they'd only gotten _worse_. 

Skywalker being crazy apparently made sense, because his master had been Master Jinn. The Council had expected Master Dooku to calm Kenobi, at the very least, but it seemed the opposite was true: when the two Padawans had been left alone, they were even worse than before. 

Ahsoka had been excited to have a master so young until she was told it was Master Jinn. Then she just got nervous and apprehensive. Surely there were other masters she could have.

"You can have Skywalker." Master Windu raised an eyebrow and she shrunk. 

"No thank you."

"You'll do fine." Master Plo soothed. "Qui-Gon is quite capable. Anakin is one of the best Knights we have."

"Yeah, I heard."

That made some of the members of the Council snicker, except Dooku, who sighed in resignation. 

"I'll get to my ship and be on my way." She bowed and left the room, not quite ready to face her new future.

* * *

When she met up with the 212th, 501st and their corresponding Generals, she was met by Dooku and Jinn themselves. The two were walking up to the shuttle, chatting amiably, and she could almost convince herself that this would be okay, that her training would be normal. 

Kenobi and Skywalker were nowhere to be seen. 

"Ah, welcome young one." Master Jinn smiled. "I'm sorry you had to come into an active warzone, but any time is a good time to start."

He was wiser than she had been led to believe. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Masters."

Dooku nodded, but he was a stern man. She knew not to take it too personally. 

"I'm afraid to ask, but where are your former Padawans?"

"Hatching a hare-brained scheme, no doubt." Dooku huffed. "Your apprentice is a bad influence."

"I dare say Obi-Wan is the worse of the two." Master Jinn grinned. "She indulges him."

"Hey! I wanna know what I'm being blamed for so I can do it properly."

Behind a large munitions crate, two humans emerged. One was a tall man with blonde-streaked light brown hair wearing navy and red robes. And some basic forearm and shoulder armour in a matte dark grey. He had a small scar over one eye, but those eyes were a charming blue. The second was a woman, shorter than the man but not by much. She had long copper hair pulled back into a loose, low braid with a simple pleat. She was wearing what looked like 212th clone armour: full blacks, full arm and leg armour and enough of the chestplate to cover her major upper organs. She wore a white belt that sat slanted across her hip, buckled around a thigh. That had her lightsaber hanging from it. The blacks themselves were torn across the stomach diagonally, looking like nasty claw marks, but the skin underneath was unblemished. 

"Ah! Where are our manners." The woman approached her with a friendly smile and extended a hand. "My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this is my friend, Anakin Skywalker."

"I see." Anakin's smile was disarming, suave and easy. "Nice to meet you. Don't worry about Master Jinn too much - we're always around to liven up the place. Besides, we're sibling-students now."

"Yes." Obi-Wan drawled, good-natured. "Welcome to the family."

"I thought attachment is forbidden?"

The two sets of Jedi exchanged looks with each other before Anakin snorted. 

"Yup. That is what they tell ya." He patted the top of her head. "Once the batter's over, come find us and fill us in on yourself. Unfortunately, right now, we've gotta get the men together."

"Right. Of course, Masters."

"Obi and Ani will be fine, young one." Obi-Wan smiled, almost motherly. 

Dooku rolled his eyes. "Bad influence."

"Now, Master." She purred, brushing past him. "Whomever did you think I learned it from?"

Obi-Wan and Anakin disappeared behind another crate together. 

"Weird. Are they always like that."

"Unfortunately." Dooku sighed. 

"Anakin came in late to the Temple." Qui-Gon explained more gently. "Obi-Wan was his first friend, and the two have been inseparable ever since."

"I see. How old was Anakin?"

"Eight."

Skywalker being odd made much more sense. He had a life before the Temple, of course he'd be weird. And by the sounds of it, he'd infected Obi-Wan too.

"Don't let yourself be fooled by her facade." Dooku cut into her musings. "Obi-Wan herself was no stranger to misbehaviour. She approached Anakin because she was an outcast as well. They feed off each other, especially in moments of danger."

"I . . . will bear that in mind."

* * *

The Battle for Christophsis was surprisingly short. She'd been told they'd been there for three weeks already, but it felt like she only caught the end. 

Of course, that might have been because of Kenobi and Skywalker sneaking off to duck behind enemy lines and blow up the shield generator. 

"Nice work, Generals." Captain Rex greeted the two Knights when they sauntered back into camp. "Got the shield down just in time."

"Of course." Kenobi replied, patting the cheek of his helmet. "Nothing but the best effort for our men."

Commander Cody, off to the side, snickered. Skywalker winked at him. 

"Alright men," Skywalker projected his voice, "today was hard, but you pulled through and won the day. We've got twenty hours until retrieval, so that's ten hours of forced rest effective immediately."

"After rest, we dismantle the guns, pack up the gear and prepare for pick up. Weapons and armour drills will be done on the cruiser alongside a proper shower and meal." Kenobi added. There was a tired cheer from the clones. "Take it easy, boys."

"And command?" Rex asked. 

"All the clones, my dear." Kenobi nodded. "Whatever comes of it, we Jedi can handle it."

"You've been up longer than we have." Cody argued. 

"Hush." She smiled. "We'll be fine. Take these quiet hours for what they're worth."

The pair walked off together, but Ahsoka tagged along. 

"Who's units are these?" She asked. 

"501st is mine." Skywalker replied, breezy and light as though he hadn't been up for 72 hours of intermitten fighting. "212th belongs to Obi-Wan."

"Masters Dooku and Jinn?"

"They float around." Kenobi replied, equally unphased by their turmoil. "We're the two main attack battalions, so they're usually with us, providing auxiliary support or at the Temple, planning coordinated efforts."

"Oh." She followed them a little more. "Where are you heading?"

"A quiet spot, to meditate." Skywalker answered. 

"Ugh." She hadn't meant to let it slip, but she'd done so much meditating with Master Yoda that she was sick of it. "Do you mind if I don't join you?"

"Do as you please." Kenobi replied. "Just keep an eye on the camp borders while we're away."

"Alright. I'll report back to Master Jinn."

She missed the devious looks the pair tossed between each other, vanishing into a building full of rubble and hard to navigate. 

"Where are the troublemakers?" Jinn asked when she walked up to their holotable.

"Meditating outside the camp."

The two older masters tossed each other knowing looks, Jinn snickering to himself. 

"Don't mind them." The younger replied. "Consider this somewhat of an after battle ritual of theirs. Best to just leave them alone."

"Oh. Okay." And she let it lie.

* * *

Kenobi and Skywalker spent a lot of time together. It was almost suspect.

"I'm surprised Senator Amidala isn't jealous."

Rex raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Well, Master Skywalker is always with Master Kenobi."

The Captain choked on his canteen, then started laughing. "Wait, you think-? _Amidala?_ "

She frowned. "Is it really that unreasonable?"

Rex's look was amused and almost pitying. "Depends, I guess. But no, they're just friends. General Kenobi makes sure to keep Skywalker grounded."

"Oh." Maybe Kenobi was more settled than rumour suggested. 

"They're both serial flirters." Rex explained. "Senator Amidala is very aware of that."

"Okay." She looked down as they walked. 

Rex wondered if she would figure out why the two were so close. It was no secret between the battalions, and the their masters seemed to know.

* * *

Kenobi, when she was doing paperwork, would play with Skywalker's curls. Before battle, Skywalker would braid Kenobi's hair. 

"Their Force bond is very intimate." One of the other Generals commented. "It is an enviable circumstance."

But the clones knew the truth. Around the men, they were far from subtle. And they didn't expect subtly from their men, either. Dooku and Jinn seemed very aware of this illicit affair, and condoned it by omission. Dooku was on the Council, and yet he never mentioned it. He even covered their indiscretions more than once. The brothers found it curious, considering what they knew about Jedi, but didn't bother to fight to understand it.

Kenobi and Skywalker were the most lethal duo on the battlefield, and always produced results. They were also incredibly kind to the brothers, so at the end of day, what they were to each other didn't matter so much. 

* * *

It took Ahsoka until the second battle of Geonosis to grasp why Rex had been evasive about Skywalker and Kenobi, and so sure of Skywalker's relationship with Senator Amidala. 

She had been with Masters Jinn and Skywalker along the raiding lines, with Master Mundi pulling up the flank, Master Kenobi down the centre and Master Dooku commanding the space battle. 

They made comm connection, but instead of Kenobi answering the hails, it was Commander Cody.

"She's down beyond our position." Cody reported. "We're taking heavy fire."

"We'll make it there as soon as we can."

True to his word, Skywalker pushed them through to meet up with the 212th and Kenobi, laying injured against a crate. 

"Obi-Wan!" Skywalker ran up to her, dropping to his knees in the gritty dirt and cupping her face with his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Broken ribs from the impact." She winced, breathing shallowly. "You need to take my command and push on."

Then, to Ahsoka's absolute shock, Skywalker kissed her full on the mouth, right in front of everyone. She kissed him back, petting his dirty hair. 

"I'll still be here." She murmured. "Go, love."

Skywalker stood. "Alright men, let's show these bugs what we've got!"

Ahsoka continued to gawk at Kenobi, but the older woman just chuckled weakly. "Hurry, Padawan, or you'll miss out on your chance for glory."

She spun on her heels, unable to string a sentence together, and ran after Skywalker and her master, who'd commandeered command of the 212th.

* * *

"Do they do that all the time?" She asked Rex and Cody when the battle was over, still dumbstruck by the whole event.

"To be fair to Skywalker," Cody replied, "it's a difficult task _not_ to be attracted to Kenobi. I've seen whole roomfuls of people fall silent just because she walked in."

"It's the genuine charm mixed with the biting sass and red hair, I think." Rex commented. "Covers up the fact she's a disaster underneath. Not unlike Skywalker, come to think about it."

"Skywalker doesn't have charm, though." Cody countered. "More like he's charming, with a nice blend of valiant warrior and idiot farmhand."

"Also a disaster underneath." Rex agreed. "Maybe that's why they mix so well."

"You're talking about this like it's normal. Jedi aren't supposed to have attachments! It's against the Code!"

"I consider the attachment to be what makes them so strong." Cody replied. "What other Jedi pair has such a success rate? I know their casualty count is pretty low too, for a pair of forward battalions."

Ahsoka tried to wrap her mind around it the way the clones seem to have. "But it's against the Code."

"Maybe it shouldn't be." Rex countered. "I've never seen two people fight harder than when they're on the field with ones they love."

"They're in love with each other?"

"General Jinn said Skywalker fell in love with Kenobi the moment he saw her." Cody replied. "And General Dooku mentioned once that they broke out of the Temple once to fulfill a vision Skywalker had."

"A vision?"

"Maybe ask Kenobi herself." Rex raised an eyebrow at her. "Instead of getting gossipy."

"You're gossiping too!"

"Yeah, but we're soldiers." Rex smirked. "Have to do something in the off-hours."

Ahsoka huffed. "Fine. I'll leave the old fishwives alone."

Cody chuckled. "That's no way to talk about your superior, Commander Tano."

She stuck her tongue out at them, but the clones - her own age in actual years, wasn't that a scary thought - just laughed. 

| | | 

She found Kenobi in a medical tent, enclosed in a bacta tank from the shoulders down, her arms crossed atop it and her head resting on them. 

"Ah, Padawan." Kenobi greeted warmly. "How went the battle?"

"Uh, it went well." She rubbed her arm. "I actually wanted to ask you something."

"About Anakin and I?"

She ducked her head. "Yes."

"Anakin was bought into the Temple late, at eight years old. He was formerly a slave from Tattooine on the Outer Rim, and he had to leave his mother behind in slavery. It weighed on him, and when he was finally accepted into the Temple, he had to take remedial courses to catch up to the rest of his age mates."

Ahsoka nodded.

"He was very intensely bullied not only for being 'slow', but also because Qui-Gon considered him to be the Chosen One. Needless to say, even when Anakin demonstrated intense and natural Force power, they still didn't leave him alone."

"Oh." She hadn't known that.

"So I stepped in. I only had a few friends of my own, and none that I was particularly close to. I took the initiative to become his ally, so he wouldn't be so alone and hate being at the Temple the way he did. When his roommate began to passively torment him, I asked for Anakin to be transferred to my room, and once that happened, we were best friends."

"Right."

"As we grew up, those feelings grew deeper, and when puberty set in, we realized that our platonic love was less so than we initially imagined. We began to experiment with out bodies once the hormone implants were distributed, and that made us closer than ever. Then he had the dream about Shmi."

"Who's Shmi?"

"Shmi Skywalker, his mother."

"Oh." _Oh._

"Indeed." Kenobi propped her head up on her fist. "We were Padawans at the time, to Yan and Qui-Gon, but no one would believe Anakin's dream was real the first day. When he had it again the night after, he came to me for help and we stole a ship and a hefty sum of credits for fuel."

"What happened to her?"

"She'd been taken by Tusken Raiders, a very hostile local tribe, and they were attempting to torture information out of her. The problem being the language barrier, since Tuskens speak in hands and Shmi knew only Basic and Huttese. She was severely injured when we snuck into their camp, but she was alive. We stole her away and brought her back home."

"To her master?"

"A man had bought and freed her, and they had subsequently married. He was the one who lead us to her in the first place. I was lucky enough to have a friend who had taught me the basics of Force healing, and between my guiding knowledge and Anakin's immense power, we were able to save her."

"That's good."

"Anakin confessed that he loved me on the return trip from Tattooine." Kenobi smiled. "We've not looked back."

"Why are you just admitting all of this to me?"

"You've already seen it. I have nothing to hide. Besides," Kenobi rolled her shoulders, "how can you be expected to understand why protecting life is necessary when you're not invested in any life but your own? Jedi _should_ love, if they so choose, and not be demonized for being who we are. This system developed the lack of empathy that made no one believe in Anakin's vision, despite it being true. Our masters forgave us and shielded us from the Council and any real punishment, but why should we be punished for saving a woman's life? If his vision had of been of Chancellor Vallorum getting assassinated, it's likely we would have been his guards for months on end, but because it was his mother, he's less than."

Ahsoka considered her words very deeply. 

"Master Yoda has a saying; Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."

"I've heard it before." Ahsoka confirmed. 

"I consider the opposite to also be true: Love leads to attachment, attachment leads to trust, trust leads to empathy." Kenobi's smile was soft and kind. "Jedi exist to be an example of what good there is in the galaxy, but good is inspired, not intrinsic. We Jedi live together, but exist alone, and that loneliness also leads to suffering."

"I-" Ahsoka bit her lip. "Yeah, I guess it does."

"If you want to turn us into the Temple, I wouldn't hold it against you." Kenobi laid her head down on the tank. "But I do request you not mention that everyone around us knew and allowed it. That's just unnecessary collateral damage."

"I want to think about it more."

"The decision is yours, young one."

Ahsoka left the med tent very confused, and struggling with it.

* * *

Ultimately, she let it go. 

And maybe, just maybe, when she met Barriss and felt that immediate connection, she finally got it. 

Not that she was going to admit it, if only to spite the knowing look Skywalker shot her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't decide whether I want add a little more from Obi and Ani's perspectives. Thoughts?


End file.
